Hooking gar???

My son and I fished below the Providence dam before the rain came in this afternoon. Saw a bunch of cats caught with some nice ones in the mix. We were getting the gar to hit consistantly but could not keep one on the hook. They were even smacking at our bobbers. Short of taking my bow next time I wondered what is the best way to get a hook in one??? I saw some stuff posted in the past but came up empty on my search. We plan on trying it agian hopefully with the right rigs.

I used to fish for them on Lake Cable down in the N.Canton area. We used to fish for them with a rooster tail with a 2' peice of yarn behind the treble hook. May sound kinda funny, but it worked. The yarn would get tangled in all of the teeth. We only used the yarn when we targeted Gar, looked kinda funny, but it diid the job.

I just read an article in In Fisherman about catching gar. Most people take a jig head and cut the hook off(just the hook) since its hard to hook into the gar. Get some nylon rope and comb it out to fray it out and then attach(tie) that to the jig shank.

Also you can use 3/8th inch diameter rope from the hardware store, combing it until it frays, then tying it around a snap and adding a bullet weight or putting it behind a slip sinker.

I caught a ton at night years ago on Lake Ochechobee. We used 4-6 inch dead shiners under a bobber. You have to let the gar run with it for a while otherwise when you set the hook it will just pull the bait away from it. They will play with it at first then finally grab ahold with that long beak and run with it then eventually pull it down into their mouth. It's tough to hook them in the beak because it is really tough cartiledge that takes a really hard hookset to penetrate.

when i was in N.C i woul dget a bunch a gar while largemouth fishing. i woul dbe using large crankbaits and the gar would literally inhale them. i also have gotten a few by worm and bobber. Like bubba k said, let the gar take the bait, those mouths are hard!! but if you ask me, take your bow...it'll be early deer season practice!

Well I tied up some "rope" lures. I took 30lb. test and wraped the frayed rope so there was a loop to attach the mainline to and it worked great!! We were not there 5 minutes and Hunter landed one. We ended up catching 4 in 45 minutes. They were a bear to untangle but we had a good time. I'll try and get the pics loaded in the next day or so.

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